2018 Hugo picks: Short stories
Apr. 9th, 2018 05:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormsewerIt looks like the Puppies got completely shut out this year, so thank Azathoth for that. Without further ado…
I actually liked all of these. That's nice. I had some trouble ranking those in the middle.
6. "Fandom For Robots" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
The world's only sentient robot starts writing fanfiction for its favorite anime.
Fun, but kinda cutesy. It reminds me of "Cat Pictures Please" from a couple years ago. It does have kind of an apolitical[1] general fannishness that tends to play well with Hugo voters.
5. "Sun, Moon, Dust" by Ursula Vernon
A humble young farmer receives a powerful weapon as an inheritance from his grandmother.
I've come to really enjoy Vernon's stories. I think if they have common thread, it would be "earthiness." This is a sweet story, and a nice inversion of the classic(al) magic sword tropes. If I have a complaint, it's that it was a little too sweet.
4. "Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand" by Fran Wilde
A tour through a strange and macabre building that seems half medical museum, half freak show.
I'm not entirely sure what to make of this, but I liked it. Very different from this author's last nominated work, in a good way. This is the kind of thing I might write, honestly.
3. "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™" by Rebecca Roanhorse
A man struggles in his job as a VR tour guide for rich white folk looking to experience Native American culture.
This one hits hard, in multiple directions, and presents a perspective that is all too often obscured, and I'm grateful for that. If I have a complaint, it's that the speculative elements are really quite ancillary. This could be made into a litfic story set in the present day without changing anything of real substance.
2. "Carnival Nine" by Caroline M. Yoachim
The life and loves of a windup woman living in a windup world.
It reminded me a lot of "Exhalation" by Ted Chiang, though this is quite different in tone. Perhaps because I'm a new parent, it did end up hitting home for me, though.
1. "The Martian Obelisk" by Linda Nagata
As human civilization winds down, an architect has to deal with a potential terrorist threat to a final monument in remote construction on Mars.
Now, this is a fine piece of work. The 19-minute delay the characters have to endure to find out what happens does a great job of building tension, and the ending packs an emotional punch that seems to point toward something fundamental about the human experience but leaves it to the reader to decide just what that is. This is a great example of the short story form.
[1] Well, unless you count human-robot slash fiction as political.
I actually liked all of these. That's nice. I had some trouble ranking those in the middle.
6. "Fandom For Robots" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
The world's only sentient robot starts writing fanfiction for its favorite anime.
Fun, but kinda cutesy. It reminds me of "Cat Pictures Please" from a couple years ago. It does have kind of an apolitical[1] general fannishness that tends to play well with Hugo voters.
5. "Sun, Moon, Dust" by Ursula Vernon
A humble young farmer receives a powerful weapon as an inheritance from his grandmother.
I've come to really enjoy Vernon's stories. I think if they have common thread, it would be "earthiness." This is a sweet story, and a nice inversion of the classic(al) magic sword tropes. If I have a complaint, it's that it was a little too sweet.
4. "Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand" by Fran Wilde
A tour through a strange and macabre building that seems half medical museum, half freak show.
I'm not entirely sure what to make of this, but I liked it. Very different from this author's last nominated work, in a good way. This is the kind of thing I might write, honestly.
3. "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™" by Rebecca Roanhorse
A man struggles in his job as a VR tour guide for rich white folk looking to experience Native American culture.
This one hits hard, in multiple directions, and presents a perspective that is all too often obscured, and I'm grateful for that. If I have a complaint, it's that the speculative elements are really quite ancillary. This could be made into a litfic story set in the present day without changing anything of real substance.
2. "Carnival Nine" by Caroline M. Yoachim
The life and loves of a windup woman living in a windup world.
It reminded me a lot of "Exhalation" by Ted Chiang, though this is quite different in tone. Perhaps because I'm a new parent, it did end up hitting home for me, though.
1. "The Martian Obelisk" by Linda Nagata
As human civilization winds down, an architect has to deal with a potential terrorist threat to a final monument in remote construction on Mars.
Now, this is a fine piece of work. The 19-minute delay the characters have to endure to find out what happens does a great job of building tension, and the ending packs an emotional punch that seems to point toward something fundamental about the human experience but leaves it to the reader to decide just what that is. This is a great example of the short story form.
[1] Well, unless you count human-robot slash fiction as political.
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Date: 2018-07-21 02:36 pm (UTC)https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3058340.html
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Date: 2018-07-22 11:59 pm (UTC)